NJ Nets president Rod Thorn to meet with prospective team owner Mikhail Prokhorov in Vancouver

William Perlman/The Star-LedgerNets president Rod Thorn met with two executives from Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim company over the weekend in Dallas and the results were favorable.

VANCOUVER -- Rod Thorn’s demise has been greatly exaggerated -- if not invented entirely, by some NBA executives with vivid imaginations and agendas that remain hard to discern.

That much was made clear by the Nets president’s meeting in Dallas on Sunday with two Onexim executives, who represented the only obstacle between Thorn heading north to Vancouver to meet with Mikhail Prokhorov for a series of appointments Monday and Tuesday.

And the Russian businessman, whose purchase of the Nets is pending league approval, “is not bringing the guy all the way to British Columbia just to fire him,” according to one person familiar with content and tone of the meeting, who required anonymity to speak candidly. “They love Rod.”

The meeting was held by Onexim CEO Dmitry Razumov and deputy CEO Christophe Charlier, who spoke enthusiastically with Thorn and Nets CEO Brett Yormark at length about the team’s future.

That discussion, however, was dedicated primarily to business interests and the team’s ambition to leave Izod Center for the Prudential Center.

The basketball issues are going to be discussed more intensively after Thorn arrives in Vancouver, where he was taken earlier today on a private plane with the two Onexim executives.

Among the topics that will be dissected are coaching candidates, the game plan for free agency, how those two decisions are tied together, and how he envisions the team’s options if they don’t land the No. 1 pick in the draft.

The likely top choice for coach probably is someone like Jeff Van Gundy, but friends of the former Knicks and Houston Rockets coach aren’t certain whether he’s ready to leave ABC or uproot his family from a very happy life in Texas.

Prokhorov has the kind of money that will not only make grown men weep, it will likely irritate every ownership peer in the league trying to keep coaching salaries in check these days.

The oligarch has taken the biggest step, however: He has clearly embraced Thorn as his chief executive for basketball matters. “You could tell Rod was happy with the way it went,” said a Nets official who requested anonymity, as he is not authorized to speak for his boss.

Whether a contract extension for Thorn is on the agenda is unclear, as that could be tabled until after the season. It is also undetermined whether coach/GM Kiki Vandeweghe will return to the team, since his contract also expires in June.